Double Trouble Review: Deathhammer – Chained to Hell

The word in this review is… Or better say, the two words in this review are THRASH METAL.And a good and old retro Thrash Metal with some Speed Metal feeling, especially in the vocals with those little screams that time to time appears here and there. Nothing against. Because when they are not an exaggeration it’s ok for me. They are not, so… A positive point for me. EhEh. The riffs are amazing, The old or retro spirit lives here in this album and with this band. The drums always on the fast “forward” mode, well, not always… maybe 90% of the album (they only slow down in the instrumental song named “Into The Burning Pentagram”. I like it.

The dirty sound that comes from the guitars, the way that “Sergeant Salsten” use the voice, the way he sings, it’s not unique but is effective and very good. DeathHammer plays the sound that for me is the “let’s go” “let us raise our hand in the air and sing the chorus” “let us bang our head” “let us go and do some “pogo” because the music is energetic and fast” “Arghh!!!! I love this riff”… Many times I left this seeing some Thrash Metal bands live. Many times I felt the energy from the riffs, the way the riffs are done, the feeling that the Thrash Metal style can transmit while I was listening to in my home, or when I was driving and gives me the will to step on and go faster (But I can’t). Thrash Metal is that and much more and Deathhammer… They do that in the best way. They are good on that. They are one of the best bands, in my opinion, doing that. Hail Deathhammer \m/

Count Vlad’s verdict

The absolute cvlt status which Deathhhammer won over the years is absolutely indisputable. With being one of the favourites of Fenriz, is obvious that the band was solidly promoted into the deepest Underground. And excatly 8 years after the release of their first “Phantom Nights”, now comes “Chained to Hell”. I must admit that on contrary to the most, my fav Deathhammer is “Onward to the Pits” (2012), despite that “Evil Power” (2016) is considered to be their most accomplished effort.

Just because of the total destructive whirlwind which Deathhhammer deliver, and the pure primitive power and joy of their music, my expectations about “Chained” were big. Their music has been always so enjoyable for the thrash die-hards. Speed riffs, unstoppable drumming and blackened vocals, turning into torturous falsetto screams. It’s what Deathhammer do best – bringing mayhemic apocalypse of total destruction. No surprises in “Chained to hell” of course. What i just felt with “Chained” is that the sound is a bit rawer, guitars are crisper. The overall compositions seemed to be played in a rush, without much paying attention to some small details. That said there are parts where the mistakes are presented. And the crisper productions just underlines that parts. I needed several listens to got into the album simply because of first listen it was just to plain, and even naive with all the flows I spotted. On top came the boredom after all. Deathhammer have lost of their anthemic feeling.

Having in mind how much this sub-genre have grown over the past couple of years, and some super solid releases by similar bands, I would say that “Chained” is a drawback for the cvlt Deathhammer. Definitely all the UG fans could check this release, however there is not much to be discovered. I really expected Deathhammer to lead the satanic hordes into that battle against the holy light. Instead they just made a manoeuvre aside and back, giving up the leadership to another generals.